Ottawa County

Updated December 2015

Ottawa County is served by KU Medical Center's Area Health Education Centers (AHECs), which serve the state through student education initiatives, professional education for health care providers, health screenings, clinics and public presentations on health topics.

Enhancing Student Education

4 students from Ottawa County are currently studying at KU Medical Center.

1 Ottawa County physician serves as volunteer KU Medical Center faculty, providing medical students with hands-on training in rural and underserved communities as part of the Rural Preceptorship Program.

Medical students spent six weeks working with primary care physicians and conducting a community-based research project in 27 counties, including Ottawa County, as part of KU Medical Center's summer 2015 Rural Primary Care Practice and Research Program, one of several programs designed to encourage students to consider practicing medicine in a rural Kansas community.

Ottawa County County is part of the North-Central Medical Education Network with Scott Owings, M.D., a resident of Salina, serving as the medical education director. The medical education director helps coordinate the School of Medicine's efforts to mentor, train and place physicians throughout Kansas.

Strengthening the Health Care Workforce

18 KU Medical Center alumni live and/or practice in Ottawa County.

2 Ottawa County physicians received funding through the Kansas Bridging Plan, a loan-forgiveness program offered since 1991 to primary care medical residents who agree to practice in rural Kansas.

20 enrollments in KU Medical Center continuing education/professional development courses and conferences by Ottawa County health care professionals in Fiscal Year 2015. Continuing education programming is offered by KU Medical Center's Continuing Education and Professional Development and KU AHECs.

Researching to Improve Health

Obesity is a risk factor for breast cancer recurrence, and rural women are considered to be at a higher risk for obesity and to have less access to health care. Female patients from 60 counties, including Ottawa County, are taking part in a weight-loss maintenance intervention program for breast cancer survivors in rural Kansas. The program connects survivors for long-term weight management using phone-based peer group support. The study then evaluates the effectiveness of the program over time. This research is led by Christie Befort, Ph.D., and is sponsored by the National Cancer Institute.

Advancing Health Care Access

Ottawa County residents saw KU Medical Center health care providers 12 times via telemedicine in FY15. An interactive video technology that connects providers and patients when distance separates the two, telemedicine services are provided through the University of Kansas Center for Telemedicine and Telehealth.

The Midwest Cancer Alliance and Kansas Masonic Foundation teamed up to offer 22 free cancer screenings across the state in 2015, including in Ottawa County. KU physicians assessed nearly 2,000 Kansans for their risk of skin and prostate cancer, and more than 350 were referred to their local physicians in an effort to prevent a potential health issue spotted during the screening.

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